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[Photos courtesy of Dana (distortion) Yavin. See more of her excellent work HERE.]

Even though I’ve been a fan of The Lemonheads output for many years, I hadn’t seen frontman Evan Dando or any incarnations of the band play in a long time. After becoming alternative rock darlings in the early 90’s, they went on hiatus in the latter part of the decade, reformed in 2005 and have released two albums since then. Billed that they were going to play ‘It’s a Shame About Ray‘, arguably their most popular disc, in its entirety, I still approached this concert with some trepidation. Depending on whom you heard it from, initial reports of stops on this tour ranged from “good” to “disastrous” and the masses hadn’t been too kind about the previous night’s performance at Bowery Ballroom. Evan and company took the stage and, after a minute or two of sorting things out, promptly launched into a note-perfect “Rockin Stroll”, the first track off of ‘Ray‘. Aside from a few false starts which just added to the fun, and the vocal missteps of “Mrs. Robinson” (which didn’t even appear on original pressings and was sung by a member of the audience), the album’s run-through went pretty well. In fact, the whole evening was highly enjoyable. Appearing to fall into a comfortable groove, Evan performed an engaging solo acoustic set, fielded requests from the crowd, pulled opening band The Shining Twins onstage to cover one of their songs, and played some great material spanning most of the band’s career, including deep cut “Stove”. For an enthusiast like myself, not only was it a very good night but I believe The Lemonheads proved that they can still shine.

Utilizing a mobile rig, we were able to secure an ideal spot on the venue’s main floor. The result is great clarity, a lovely capture of the interplay between the band and crowd, and an overall very good recording. Enjoy!

Stream “Hannah & Gabi”:

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Stream “No Backbone”:

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Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT The Lemonheads, visit their website, visit their Facebook and MySpace pages, and purchase their official releases and merchandise [HERE] and [HERE].

Love the Lemonheads…but it seems that the years haven’t been kind to Evan’s singing voice.

JB

October 17, 2013 at 9:12 am

I actually saw the New Hope Winery Show in early 2012 and loved the show. I am a huge Lemonheads / Evan fan and I thought they sounded awesome. He did seem “under the influence” at a few shows and some fans (including me) were disappointed because clearly it impacted the show and quality of the music. Recently saw Evan in Pittsburgh with Soul Asylum and Fountains of Wayne and it seems he cleaned up. Hoping he stays the course. Everyone loves to party but when it starts impacting your everyday life and career time to rethink it. I want to make sure I can see the Lemonheads many more times and also love the new albums.

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